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KK.. so I've owned my male Spotted Turtle for about 5 years, after rescuing him from certain death in the middle of a North Carolina road during a hurricane... Hurricane George in fact, my Spotties namesake. He has been an adult since he was picked up, and I don;t know how old he is. He has been housed in a 150 gallon aquarium with a 1:2 ratio of land:water, and about 8 inches of water at all times. There are currently 3 filters, including a Shark Submersible, Eheim 2200 and a Penguin HoT that is acting as a passive filter being fed by a 500GPH pond pump. This past summer, I purchased a juvenile Spotted at SEWERFest in Racine Wisconsin, who I'm hoping is a female. The "female", Gracie, looks quite healthy and is a ravenous feeder, immediately hitting the water whenever I near their house. Her only problem is a "bump" on her cheek that makes it look like her ear is swollen.

George however, has not been doing so well... over the last 2 years of so, he has had various eye problems, mostly crusties when he leaves the water for long periods of time. He has seent he vet for this problem, and was prescribed a Vitamin B shot, which I administered myself for both doses. While it appeared that he was doing a bit better after the shots, I have now found new problems. Previously, I attributed his lack of appetite to his eye problems, being that he couldn't see anything until he was in the water and had scraped the crust from his eyes with his foot. Now, it seems that his problem is again due to his eyes, but I fear he is going blind. This is my dillema... His eyes do not fully open any more when he is out of water, I don't know what is causing it, but as soon as he hits the water, he can open his eyes again.

A few minutes ago, I fed them each a half of a nightcrawler, which normally, both would gulp down in a few seconds. Gracie grabbed her half and went to her corner to eat, and George sat above his half of the worm and struck at the water trying to eat it from 2 inches away.... as if he thought the worm was where he was striking. I picked up the worm and touched it to his face, and he then calmed down and figured out where the worm was. He has since eaten it, but the whole event has me very worried. He already doesn't eat very much, as he gets a pellet diet daily, and doesn't really like pellets, and now that he is having trouble finding his food, I fear that he will soon die of starvation. It seems as though my vet, while very good with reptiles in general, is at a loss to figure out what is wrong with my favorite animal. I too am usually good at figuring out what is wrong with any of my 11 animals, but this one is beyond me.

If anyone has any suggestions, or knows any vets in the Milwaukee, WI area that know a great deal about aquatic turtles, please reply soon. It breaks my heart to see him in this situation.

List the routine diet for these turtles. Although vitamin A defficiency is uncommon in adults, this may be George's problem (assiming there is no respiratory disease). Some strongly discourage vitamin A injections, as they cause excessive new skin growth and exfoliation, but I have tried it with limited success. A diet high in vitamin A may help. As for the smaller animal, it probably has a middle ear infection causing distention of the "ear" covering. it should be treated with appropriate injectable antibiotics (amikacin or baytril - calulate the dose very carefully by weight = 10 mg/kg for both), then, after the serum antibiotic level is up, the "ear" area may be sterilized with an antibiotic fluid and carefully lanced to allow the pus to drain under sterile conditions. If the condition has persisted for some time, the pus may have solidified and must be "shelled" out of the ear cavity.

Thanks much Erico... I'll take them both to the vet tomorrow. Is there a test you can do for Vitamin A deficiency, or is it just an educated guess most of the time?

Their diet consists of reptomin pellets, greens, and nightcrawlers. I also fed crickets when I have an overstock of them from my other animals who eat crix.

Diet sounds great - check for respiratory problems, although there ARE simple eye infections that respond well to triple anti-biotic ointment (genric of Neosporin), but usually this is limied to one eye.